By REP. JERRY T. MILLER and REP. SAL SANTORO
The time has come to address Kentucky’s aging and inadequate roads and bridges. The commonwealth is home to nearly 14,000 bridges and 80,000 miles of roadway, and they are in terrible shape.

Earlier this year, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) awarded the state an appalling D+ for road conditions and C- for the state of our bridges. These are the roads our future depends on.

Safe, reliable transportation is critical to public safety and quality of life. Kentucky roads facilitate the movement of goods and people as well as provide access to health care and educational and entertainment opportunities. They are the backbone of a strong economy—the link between rural and urban, manufacturer and market. Our transportation infrastructure supports all industry segments, including manufacturing, tourism and agriculture, and more than $500 billion in freight travels Kentucky roads annually.

Infrastructure is particularly critical in a state like ours, where more than 40 percent of the population lives in rural areas, and we have more than twice the national average of rural roads. The strength of our rural economy and the safety of rural life are heavily reliant on the quality of our transportation system.

We have taken a few tentative steps forward. In the road plan passed by the Kentucky General Assembly last year, we prioritized maintenance, investing over $350 million in resurfacing over the next two years. We also focused heavily on repairing and replacing bridges in counties across the commonwealth. This includes an investment of nearly $500 million to repair or replace almost 350 bridges in both large cities and small communities.

However, these are the first steps in a long journey. And it is a journey fraught with challenges. Tax changes in 2014 translate into $200 million less each year in road fund revenue, and Kentucky has an estimated annual infrastructure investment gap of $490 million. That means that each year the Transportation Cabinet needs an additional half billion dollars to address all maintenance and new construction needs. Also, approximately $120 million in annual federal toll credits are set to expire. These credits allow us to leverage the money we spend on eligible toll-financed for state matching funds on current federal-aid projects. That is a devastating hit to any plans to repair, maintain or build.

Our state has seen historic economic growth over the past three years, but the greatest potential for encouraging investment is still untapped. Kentucky is not alone. However, neighboring states like Indiana and Tennessee are tackling the problem head on and have already doubled down on their infrastructure investments. In April, Ohio joined the group when it passed a 10.5 cents-per-gallon increase on gasoline and a 19 cents-per-gallon increase on diesel. The Ohio legislation also included annual registration fees for gas hybrids ($100) and electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids ($200).

What can we do? The answer is simple; we must invest. Actually doing so is complicated and requires political courage and the ability to recognize that we are being penny wise and pound foolish.

Support for long-term, sustainable funding is vast and diverse, including the Kentucky Association for Economic Development, Kentucky Association of Counties, Kentucky League of Cities, Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, and the Kentucky Council of Area Development Districts.

During the 2019 Regular Session, we filed legislation that sought to address these infrastructure problems. The bill, House Bill 517, had bipartisan support. It would have increased the gas consumption fee and imposed a miles per gallon fee. As filed, the proposal would have cost the average Kentucky driver an estimated $60 at the pump and $22 at registration, barely more than a quarter of the $331 the average Kentuckian pays in vehicle maintenance and time delays due to our road conditions. The revenue raised through these changes can only be spent on roads and bridges and the enforcement of traffic laws – a restriction that ensures that money is invested wisely.

That proposal was an attempt to jumpstart a real and meaningful conversation about the need to modernize infrastructure funding. Much of the way we fund construction now was put into place decades ago and is about as effective as a 1969 Dodge Charger is fuel-efficient. Like most government programs, no substantial changes have been made in years. Nothing takes into account innovations in transportation like hybrids, electric vehicles or higher fuel efficiency. It is past time to make these changes. The 2020 session provides a great opportunity to accomplish this, with the budget and the road plan open for debate.

It is our hope that our colleagues, both Republicans and Democrats, will recognize the need to build and maintain the roads (and bridges) to prosperity.

Rep. Jerry T. Miller represents the 36th House District, located in southeastern Jefferson and a portion of Oldham counties. Rep. Sal Santoro serves Boone County residents of the 60th House District. They can be reached at 1-800-372-7181. (Kentucky Today 06/19/2019)

GAS TAX BILL RUNS OUT OF FUEL IN KENTUCKY LEGISLATURE

Marcus Green, March 15, 2019

FRANKFORT, Ky. (WDRB) – For the second straight year, a bill to raise Kentucky’s gas tax has died in the state legislature.

House Bill 517 stalled in a House committee and wasn’t added to conference committees of House and Senate negotiators who hashed out tax and spending measures this week.

House Speaker David Osborne said Thursday that he was willing to move an infrastructure bill forward only with bipartisan backing. The gas tax plan had “significant support” among the House’s majority Republicans, he said, but Democrats weren’t in favor.

But one of the bipartisan bill’s co-sponsors, Democratic Rep. Russ Meyer of Nicholasville, countered Friday morning that the measure had “plenty of support” among Democrats and said he believed it didn’t advance in the House because it was likely to fail in the Senate.

“The reality is pointing a finger at a Democrat or a Republican is the wrong thing to do,” Meyer said. “We need to do this for all of Kentucky.”

“We need the money,” the governor said during the Kentucky Magistrates and Commissioners Association’s spring convention in Louisville, responding to a question about the bill. “But it needs to be something more comprehensive.”

Kentucky’s road fund is taking in less revenue than in past years – partially a result of more fuel-efficient vehicles and gas tax collections that are tied to wholesale prices. Transportation officials say more money is needed to continue to build and maintain roads and repair aging ones.

The state’s plight will worsen once federal toll credits that have served as local matching funds expire in the next year. At that point, Kentucky would have to use state dollars as its federal match.

The House bill would have added a 10-cent-per-gallon gas tax and raised other fees on license plate renewals and electric vehicles, among a series of new costs for drivers. It would have generated nearly $500 million a year in additional revenue, according to estimates.

Kentucky Transportation Secretary Greg Thomas told lawmakers during a hearing on the bill March 5 that more money is needed for transportation, but “I would go farther in terms of where do we go with this investment in our infrastructure.”

In a recording of remarks at the magistrates’ meeting, Bevin said the bill’s main sponsor, Rep. Sal Santoro, R-Florence, “is bold. He’s willing to do something that nobody likes.”

Bevin also appeared to echo Thomas’ position and said any solution must have the support of both parties.

“Why beat ourselves up, go through all the chest pounding, sackcloth-and-ashes grief and angry letters to the editor and all this other stuff for 30 cents when you really need a dollar?” Bevin said. “We’re going to have to suck it up in Kentucky – all of us – and this is going to have to be bipartisan.”

The Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, Greater Louisville Inc., and the statewide Kentuckians for Better Transportation backed an increase in the gas tax. The Kentucky chapter of the conservative Americans for Prosperity opposed it, arguing that lawmakers ought to better evaluate how existing tax dollars are spent.

Senate President Robert Stivers declined to comment on the gas-tax bill Thursday but said any approach to raising more money for transportation needs to be “holistic,” especially in light of electric and hybrid vehicles that don’t use gasoline but still travel the state’s roads.

“You’re not going to be able to exclusively rely on gasoline tax,” he said. “You’re going to have to start something else, because those cars don’t use gasoline but still have that same impact.”

Some states have studied charging a fee on the total number of miles a vehicle travels. Two Kentucky House members introduced a resolution creating the Mileage-Based Transportation Funding Task Force, but it died in a committee.

GOVERNOR BEVIN SAYS MORE MONEY MUST BE GENERATED FOR ROAD FUNDING AS INFRASTRUCTURE NEEDS BECOME DIRE

During a community forum in October, Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin said the issue of a shortage of road funding is not going away and stated the legislature will have to craft a bill to include a possible increase in the gas tax and other fees to deal with declining revenue to fix and build Kentucky roads and bridges.

In audio of the forum at the Campbell County Fiscal Court obtained by The Bottom Line, Gov. Bevin explains the state gets money for infrastructure and road projects through two main sources, funding from the federal government’s highway trust fund and an excise tax on fuel in the state. Both of which, he said, are declining in recent years—a cause for concern for infrastructure in the Commonwealth.

When asked about a proposal during the 2018 session to increase infrastructure funding through changes to the formula which would have increased the gas tax by a small amount as well as implemented some fees on electric vehicles at registration and/or purchase to ensure everyone is paying their fair share for the roads even if they aren’t paying at the pump, Bevin said there were many different numbers thrown around for an increase in the gas tax including up to 10 cents which he said would generate a significant amount of revenue for the Road Fund.

Bevin stated for every one cent the gas tax is raised, it would generate around $31 million in revenue for the state. He added Kentucky is facing $6 billion in deferred revenue for bridges alone across the state, so even if it was raised by 10 cents and generated $310 million for road and bridge funding, there is still more that needs to and should be done.

“The bottom line is we need the money, we do. And it’s going to have to come up. Nobody likes it, nobody anywhere like paying taxes,” Bevin said. “But at the end of the day, we still want law enforcement, we still want roads and bridges, and they have to be paid for by people, the people who live here and use these things. So, it’s going to have to come up because where else is the money going to come from?”

The governor also highlighted the decrease in funding the state has seen from the federal government in recent years and the additional revenue Kentucky is set to lose through the loss of federal toll credits next year.

“Trust me, we are about to have an even bigger problem than most people are even aware of,” Bevin said.

Because of the increasing pressures on the Road Fund and loss of money at all levels, Bevin said the issue of infrastructure will continue to come up and must be dealt with by the legislature.

“If we focus on making Kentucky highways safer, we can prevent some addiction.” That is the statement made by community activist Dave Cooper in a July 3 commentary posted by the Herald-Leader.

While I’m not sure that statement is accurate, I do know Kentucky has significant challenges to overcome to make our roads and bridges as safe as they can be.

With nearly 80,000 miles of roadway and nearly 14,000 bridges to maintain in the commonwealth, our state — along with the road and bridge design and construction industries — has worked diligently to provide a safe transportation network that connects Kentucky communities to one another and manufacturers, farmers and miners to the rest of the world.

But our state is in the midst of an unprecedented crisis when it comes to our transportation network. We do not have the funding we need to maintain all those miles of roads and thousands of bridges, nor do we have the funding to maintain and improve our transit systems, our airports, railroads and public riverports.

And this crisis impacts every Kentuckian every single day.

Driving on Kentucky’s diminishing transportation system costs motorists a total of $4 billion yearly in additional vehicle operating costs, congestion-related delays and traffic crashes, according to the national transportation research group, TRIP. That total is 2.5 times greater than what Kentucky spends in the road fund each year.

Not unlike other states, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet is doing what it can with the funding it has available, working to prioritize the most critical transportation infrastructure needs.

During the 2018 General Assembly, lawmakers delivered a responsible, yet lean, State Highway Plan that included two years of funded investments and four years of planned projects. A priority was put on fixing a tremendous backlog of bridges and roads in poor condition.

As a result of a lack of transportation funding paired with growing needs, the cabinet is forced to address only the most critical infrastructure projects. Through the use of the Strategic Highway Investment Formula for Tomorrow (SHIFT) process, more than 1,100 projects were evaluated using quantitative measures such as crash rates, congestion, economic growth and cost-benefit ratios. This process will undoubtedly help ensure safer roadways and increase opportunities for Kentuckians.

But, even though much of the plan is focused on safety projects over the next six years, it’s simply not enough. Some legislators smartly pushed for increased revenue for roads during the last legislative session but, unfortunately, House Bill 609 failed. This was the most serious piece of legislation to begin addressing Kentucky’s transportation funding need in recent memory.

We cannot give up. Kentucky’s road fund revenues are decreasing substantially each year and federal policy changes will significantly reduce Kentucky’s purchasing power for state roads, making a bad situation dire. Kentucky’s rural communities will be particularly hurt by these policy changes.

We must invest more in infrastructure to ensure safety for our families and workers as well as attract and expand a 21st-century economy and jobs.

The transportation industry is ready to make Kentucky’s transportation network safer and better for all users and Kentuckians from every corner of the state will enjoy the benefits. As an advocate for transportation funding, the Kentucky Infrastructure Coalition is encouraging the legislature to act to keep our roads safe and sound today and build for tomorrow.

Let’s invest in transportation now to make Kentucky better for generations to come.

Over the years, funding levels for maintenance, safety improvements, and capacity enhancements of our transportation systems have fallen. The condition of our system as a whole is suffering, and it will get worse if more is not done to repair and upgrade our facilities.

While there are many crying needs in our communities for more investment, nothing is more crucial to our way of life than a good, safe, efficient transportation system. Little job growth or economic expansion can take place without first investing in a system that allows safe access to all corners of the state.

As we construct much needed new schools here in Scott County, I ask that consideration be given to the roads and bridges that our buses cross every day. Across the state, the list of structurally deficient bridges grows every year. If these maintenance needs continue to be deferred, the total cost to repair and upgrade these facilities goes higher. This situation needs to be addressed now.

I urge our representatives in Frankfort to provide more funding for infrastructure.

REGISTRATION NOW OPEN - KHI DAY AT THE CAPITOL &
ACEC-KY/KSPE/KAHC LEGISLATIVE RECEPTION
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 27

The 2018 Regular Session convened on January 2 with a full agenda ahead including pension reform, enacting a state budget in difficult fiscal times, and the enactment of the 2-year Road Plan. Given the limited funds available for state construction and maintenance, KAHC will continue to advocate for sustainable funding that provides adequate revenues for a robust transportation infrastructure.

KAHC Members please plan to join us in these efforts by visiting Frankfort and attending the KHI Day at the Capitol on Tuesday, February 27. The day will begin at 9:00 AM in the Capitol Annex for a light breakfast and overview of the day, including several guest speakers. You will then have a chance to attend the weekly meetings of the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee and the House Transportation Committee.

Lunch will be provided at the annex for you and the members of the General Assembly. There will be time for you to meet with your local legislators and to attend the House and Senate afternoon proceedings if you would like.

The day will conclude with a reception for legislators and special guests co-hosted by ACEC-KY, KSPE, and KAHC at Depot Place from 5:00 – 7:00PM.

There is no charge for any of the events, but if you plan to attend all or part of this Day at the Capitol, please register here by close of business Wednesday, February 21 so that we can plan accordingly. Staff will forward the final agenda and additional details regarding directions, parking and other logistics the week prior to the event.

OVER 54,000 AMERICAN BRIDGES STRUCTURALLY DEFICIENT, ANALYSIS OF NEW FEDERAL DATA SHOWS

(WASHINGTON)—The nearly 48,000-mile Interstate Highway System literally moves the U.S. economy. It carries 75 percent of the nation’s heavy truck traffic. A new report finds there is the equivalent of one “structurally deficient”-rated bridge, on average, for every 27 miles of our major highway network. The 1,800 structurally deficient Interstate bridges are crossed 60 million times daily.

When it comes to bridges needing attention, however, that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

According to an analysis of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s just released 2017 National Bridge Inventory database, 54,259 of the nation’s bridges are rated structurally deficient. If placed end-to-end, they would stretch 1,216 miles, or nearly the distance between Miami and New York City.

Cars, trucks and school buses cross these 54,259 compromised structures 175 million times every day, the data show.

The pace of improving the nation’s inventory of structurally deficient bridges slowed this past year. It’s down only two-tenths of a percent from the number reported in the government’s 2016 data. At current pace of repair or replacement, it would take 37 years to remedy all of them, says Dr. Alison Premo Black, chief economist for the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA), who conducted the analysis.

Noting President Trump is expected to address the nation’s infrastructure challenges in his Jan. 30 “State of the Union” address, Black says, “An infrastructure package aimed at modernizing the Interstate System would have both short- and long-term positive effects on the U.S. economy.” Traffic bottlenecks, she says, costs the trucking industry alone over $60 billion per year in lost productivity and fuel, which “increases the cost of everything we make, buy or export.”

To help ensure public safety, bridge decks and support structures are regularly inspected for deterioration and remedial action. They are rated on a scale of zero to nine—with nine meaning the bridge is in “excellent” condition. A bridge is classified as structurally deficient and in need of repair if the rating on a key structural element is four or below.

While these bridges may not be imminently unsafe, they are in need of attention.

State—and congressional district—specific information from the analysis—including rankings and the locations of the 250 most heavily travelled structurally deficient bridges in the nation and top 25 most heavily traveled in each state—is available at www.artbabridgereport.org.

FRANKFORT – A new economic analysis released today found that Kentucky’s economy could gain an additional $3.33 for every dollar invested in transportation.

Lexington-based Commonwealth Economics studied infrastructure funding and gaps for all modes of transportation at a time when funding for state highway projects this fiscal year is down 67 percent from fiscal year 2012 and is $227 million less than the average over the past decade.

“These needs are real and necessary to accommodate the system’s work force, manufacturers, distributors, retailers and other users who are the engines of our economy,” said Juva Barber, executive director of Kentuckians for Better Transportation and chairwoman of the Kentucky Infrastructure Coalition, which funded the report.

“Kentucky must invest more in infrastructure to attract and expand a 21st century economy and jobs. In addition, this study shows the powerful, quantifiable impact of infrastructure investment. Kentucky must create funding solutions that are dynamic, sustainable and meet the evolving needs of a changing economy. We must responsibly maintain the infrastructure we have today for all modes of transportation and build what we need for our future.”

Other report findings include:

Kentucky needs an additional minimum of $554 million in annual transportation investment just to maintain the average level of construction funding from the past decade and provide the necessary level of maintenance on existing highways and bridges.

That $554 million increase in transportation infrastructure spending would support employment for 6,239 people and generate $296 million in total wages.

When combining the construction impacts with the ongoing operational benefits, the benefit-cost ratio jumps to 5.01 to 1. This means Kentucky would realize a benefit of more than $2.7 billion from each additional $554 million investment in transportation infrastructure.

About the Kentucky Infrastructure CoalitionThe Kentucky Infrastructure Coalition is made up of manufacturers, farmers, engineers, local leaders and more than 40,000 transportation workers who understand that safe, reliable, efficient transportation is essential to Kentucky’s economy. The Coalition supports long-term, sustainable funding that provides adequate revenues for all modes of transportation so our state can maintain the infrastructure we have today and build what we need for our future.

A primary option being considered to improve traffic would be to build a second span alongside the Brent Spence Bridge with one carrying northbound traffic and the other southbound traffic.

Regular bottleneck congestion on Interstates 71 and 75 across the Brent Spence Bridge spanning the Ohio River between Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky is at the forefront of state and local government agendas.

Built in 1963 for $10 million, the bridge named for Newport, Kentucky-born U.S. Rep. Brent Spence is a key link for 10 states from Michigan to Florida. It was designed for 80,000 cars a day, but today sees an average of 170,000 a day with an ever-increasing number of trucks, according to Bob Yeager, Kentucky’s chief District 6 engineer in the Covington office.

“I’ve driven this bridge every day since I got my license in 1968, and I’ve seen the truck traffic increase,” Yeager said. “The bridge is structurally sound, but functionally obsolete.”

The American Transportation Research Institute ranks the I-71/75 river crossing as No. 5 on its list of the Top 100 traffic bottlenecks in the country. Roughly 3 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product crosses this busy trucking route each year, according to a 2009 study from the Texas Transportation Institute. That equates to $417 billion, more than the total GDP of roughly 150 of the countries in the world.

Yeager likened the Brent Spence – one of the first four bridges crossing the Ohio River in Greater Cincinnati – to a house outgrown by its large family.

“It is incremental,”

Yeager explained. “You had two children, then three, and then four and maybe made some adjustments, and then five, and think, ‘How did I get here?’ I have to bite the bullet and buy a new house. So that’s where we are.”

According to the Brent Spence Bridge Corridor project, traffic congestion on the Brent Spence Bridge costs an average of 3.6 million hours of delay for passenger cars every year; roughly 1.6 million gallons of fuel are wasted annually due to traffic congestion.

An early 2015 estimate put the cost of replacing the bridge at $2.6 billion. It will require new ramps and realigned links with major infrastructure changes on each side, especially for more urbanized Cincinnati. It could take a decade or more. Meanwhile, every year’s delay in the start of construction is increasing the price that taxpayers will eventually bear by nearly $75 to $85 million in inflation alone.

Fixing the bridge problem is not simply a matter of building a new, bigger one. The entire transportation corridor – in Ohio and Kentucky – needs to be examined, which is what state transportation officials were busy doing in 2017 after Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin commissioned a study to figure out the best approach to fixing the expensive problem. The results of the study are due at the end of 2017, and transportation officials say that although the report will not have price tags or timelines it will present the best next steps for the first time.

The Brent Spence Bridge Strategic Corridor study includes an examination of the Cincinnati Eastern Bypass as proposed by the Citizens for the Cincy Eastern Bypass. The proposed facility would begin in Kentucky along I-71 in Gallatin County and would cross I-75 and extend northeast to I-71 in Warren County, Ohio, and continue north to I-75 in Warren County, Ohio.

In the meantime, the bridge is undergoing routine maintenance to support smooth and safe travel. It is structurally viable for long-term use. Currently the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet is managing the bridge maintenance and repair projects in partnership with the Ohio Department of Transportation.

Most recently a new deck overlay was completed, renovating the driving surface. Additional lighting was added, lane stamping was added to improve visibility and give better directions for drivers. The bridge’s original six lanes were divided among two driving decks, but renovations in 1986 eliminated the emergency lanes to widen the bridge to four lanes on each deck. Since then periodic maintenance and improvements have been made on the structure.

“They made the lanes 11 feet (wide) instead of 12 and took away the shoulders,” Yeager said. “It was a tremendous improvement but not a lot of effort, kind of like adding an extra bed to a bedroom in a house. About 15 or 20 years ago we rebuilt the cut in the hill; it was a steep, curvy hill that led into the bridge, so we straightened it out.”

Improvements to the existing structure can only do so much, though.

The Transportation Cabinet’s study should reveal the next steps toward an ultimate goal that will include adding another new bridge. The master plan involves the entire corridor.

“It would be a second circle outside of I-275 – an outer loop that would go to Boone County and connect with Ohio,” explained Jack Moreland, president of Newport-based Southbank Partners. “It basically said that we may need an alternate route, but that doesn’t replace the need for the upgrade of the Brent Spence. Or maybe they build a (new) bridge that’s part of the outer loop. If you look at the success of Louisville with the Gene Snyder and the Watterson expressways, it makes sense we should have a second loop around our area, too. I think we actually need to do both an outer loop and the (new downtown) bridge.”

Regardless of what the master plan will look like, he said the plan is for a new bridge to be added right where the current bridge is. He speculated that the existing Brent Spence would carry Interstate 71 and a new bridge would carry Interstate 75, the traffic backbone of the eastern United States.

“The plan we have currently is a (new) bridge next to it. Keeps it in play, putting another next to it,” Yeager said. “It’s 59 years old and still has a lot of life left in it. We would try to put it back as close to its original (six-lane) configuration as possible. If we ‘got more bedrooms’ we’d take the bunk beds out and we could put a bed back in.”

The study, due out any day, will analyze all of these options and make a recommendation for next steps for the corridor. Local leaders are hopeful that the Trump administration’s focus on infrastructure may culminate in some funding dollars.

Moreland said there is not a lot of consensus on how to pay for the project. He said Northern Kentuckians are reluctant to see tolls. He estimated a bridge project could cost several billion dollars with perhaps somewhere in the $800 million range coming from the federal government.

It’s a big price tag, and regardless of the delays and high costs in the future, Moreland said he hasn’t heard of it negatively affecting business in Northern Kentucky.

“I haven’t heard of a single instance where someone said they weren’t going to locate here because of the (disruption of years of) new construction,” he said. “People think, ‘Well the old bridge is there and we’re using it, and it’s not costing us anything,’ but that’s just not correct. Every morning the traffic backs up into southern Kenton and Boone County to go across that bridge. There is rarely ever not a backup. You have to wait, and that’s costing you money. It’s a cost by not having a new bridge.”

But Moreland senses that the make-do mood is shifting.

“There might be more tolerance for some kind of funding mechanism today than there was three years ago,” he said, “but I can’t prove that at all.”

Yeager agrees that the bridge issue ties in to employment and economic development. The I-71/75 bridge is the main connector from airport in the Northern Kentucky and downtown Cincinnati. However, he also pointed out that the region has bridges that are underutilized.

He hopes the long-anticipated $26 million Route 9 project now underway to connect AA Highway to the Taylor Southgate Bridge in Newport will take traffic off the Brent Spence and provide access to East Covington across the new 12th Street bridge. The hope is that the new roadway will spread bridges traffic out and make conditions better than they are now, which would boost the economies of Northern Kentucky’s river cities.

Until a master plan is complete, the studies will continue to evaluate what is best for the economy, aesthetics, traffic and environment in the entire region – in a crucial piece of road that affects the entire nation.

Abby Laub is a correspondent for The Lane Report. She can be reached at editorial@lanereport.com.

President Donald Trump’s administration this week confirmed it will provide its long-anticipated infrastructure proposal to Congress in January. The federal package would be split into four buckets: funding for states and localities that promise to take on more of the financial burden of infrastructure building and upkeep; block grants for rural areas; existing federal loan programs; and money for high-impact, “transformational” projects.

Presidential special assistant for infrastructure policy DJ Gribbin promised a “robust debate” about the future of transportation investment and the Highway Trust Fund (HTF). At a Dec. 6 Roll Call newspaper event, he reiterated the administration’s desire to cut other parts of the federal budget to generate $200 billion in incentives to leverage $1 trillion of infrastructure investment over 10 years.

Gribbin said HTF-supported program budgets will have to match federal motor fuels tax revenues rather than rely on other sources of money, such as those used to bridge the gap in the 2015 surface transportation law. He also noted the Trump administration has taken a “neutral” position on whether to hike the federal gas tax that supports the HTF.

The administration first signaled its thoughts about the HTF and the $200 billion earlier this year in its FY2018 budget. See ARTBA’s analysis of the impact on U.S. Department of Transportation highway and transportation programs.

Gribbin said the administration’s ongoing regulatory reforms are “the most boring but most impactful” aspect of its emerging infrastructure plan. Keeping permitting decision within the two-year window demanded by the administration will produce a huge economic benefit, he said, adding the regulatory strings that come with federal money increase project costs and slow construction.

Gribbin downplayed the federal role in infrastructure development in favor of state and local governments and the private sector. He framed the wave of successful state and local transportation funding initiatives as evidence that taxpayers trust governments closer to home more than Washington.

“There’s a huge accountability problem,” he said. “Taxpayers don’t trust the federal government to invest.”

House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Ranking Member Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), who also appeared at the Roll Call event, has long supported an indexed gas tax increase to help the HTF. He scoffed at the notion of generating $200 billion for infrastructure through cuts to healthcare and welfare.

DeFazio also blasted as “classic devolution” the idea of more state and local government driven projects, which he said will lead to uneven infrastructure development across the nation, such as what occurred during the first half of the 20th century before the Interstate Highway program.

“That was bad policy in the 1950s, it’s ridiculous in a world economy today,” he said, pointing to national infrastructure development in China.

DeFazio said the last two surface transportation reauthorizations contained plenty of regulatory streamlining measures that have not yet been fully implemented. “The problem is lack of funding, it is not analysis paralysis.” (ARTBA Washington Newsline, December 8, 2017)

Daulton is 95 years old and has been riding the public transit system in Somerset, Kentucky, for about 15 years. Daulton said her daughter would like for her to move closer to Bowling Green, but Daulton likes her community and has no intention of leaving.

“I want to stay here. I want to be in my own home, if I can, as long as I live,” Daulton said.

Daulton is just one of many seniors in small towns and rural areas who want to age in place and remain connected to their community. Access to transit helps make that possible. But the RTEC is not just the only transit system in Somerset, it’s the only one for the 12 surrounding counties.

Mary Denny has been driving for RTEC for 5 years. She said many people in her community would be stranded or home bound without the service, not just seniors.

“It doesn’t just pertain to just elderly. We have anywhere from young individuals that’s struggling, low income, that’s struggling to make ends meet that we’re able to help and assist,” Denny said.

Compared to national averages, the Ohio Valley has a higher percentage of senior citizens, people with disabilities, and people living on low incomes — all groups likely to depend on transit. And a great number of them live in rural areas and small towns. Public transportation can make it possible to keep a job, reach a doctor, or just get your hair done. But transit experts in the region worry that funding is not keeping pace with demand.

Falling Behind

Juva Barber is the Executive Director of Kentuckians for Better Transportation, a statewide association advocating for all modes of transportation. Barber said in 2020 Kentucky will need $10 million from the general fund just to keep services as they are now, not including any improvements.

Kentuckians for Better Transportation

Juva Barber of Kentuckians for Better Transportation.

“We have to do something because if we don’t do something we fall farther and farther behind.” Barber said, adding that the effects can be felt far beyond just those who ride the bus.

“When you’re looking for a workforce, if that workforce can’t get there that puts you further down on the list when it comes to site selection so that impacts economic development,” she said.

Barber said there needs to be increased investment in infrastructure. No pothole will repair itself and no bus will avoid a trip to the maintenance garage.

Charles Rutkowski is with Community Transportation Association of America, a national organization that works with rural transit systems. He said every patient, customer and student represents income, revenue, and economic development for that health care institution or college. He adds for every $1 invested in transit there’s a benefit of $3.50 to that community.

“It provides jobs on a very basic level. It provides jobs for bus drivers, bus mechanics, dispatchers, schedulers, managers etc.,” Rutkowski said. “But it also transports a lot of local folks to jobs. And some of those individuals probably could not access those jobs were it not for the existence of public transit.”

Rutkowski said providing access to public transportation helps some lower income individuals break out of the cycle of poverty. He said it also enables seniors such as Thelma Daulton to live in their own homes and retain their independence, which often costs less than an assisted living facility.

Rural Challenges

The APTA found that while rural population is declining, ridership in rural areas has increased over the past 8 years. In fact, rural ridership grew far faster than did public transit demand in cities (when measured on a per capita basis).

The rural demand is largely due to older residents, people living on low incomes, and people with disabilities. Older folks make up a larger portion of rural communities than in urban areas, and rural poverty rates are higher than urban poverty rates across the country. That difference is especially high in the south.

The report includes a map showing the convergence of all three of these factors in the Ohio Valley region. Kentucky, West Virginia, and southeastern Ohio have high percentages of seniors who are both underprivileged and living with a disability. In many counties in the region 15 percent or more of the population fits this description. The U.S. average is about 10 percent.

And yet, the APTA found that per-capita spending on rural public transit spending is lower than in urban areas.

‘Homebound without us’

Kirt Conrad is the CEO of Stark Area Regional Transit Authority in Canton, Ohio. He said the state has supported the public transit system but the needs are outgrowing what has historically been provided.

“Every two years we have to go back to the general assembly and set those funding marks. We have no guaranteed funding sources for transit at the state level,” Conrad said.

Conrad said lower income people who rely on public transit often have no slack resources, and if they’re relying on transit services to get them to work the service has to be reliable. Conrad said they also transport about 170,000 people a year who qualify for public assistance under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“We go to their house and take them to either work, school, or the doctor’s appointment. Without us those 170,000 people would be homebound,” Conrad said.

‘Opens your eyes’

Bowling Green, Kentucky, resident Scott Henry never expected to need a service like that.

“Being a healthy person all my life I never ever thought I’d be in a situation where I’d have to count on para-transit transportation to get back and forth to work every day,” Henry said.

But about a year ago Henry’s knee collapsed, became infected and he wasn’t able to get a knee replacement. He’s been unable to drive since.

“It opens your eyes if you don’t have something like that. You can’t do your job, you can’t go to the doctor, you can’t get groceries,” Henry said. “You can’t do anything and living alone I had no one to help me.”

Henry said arranging private transportation can cost about $200 a day. He’s had to cancel doctor’s appointments and even surgeries because he couldn’t get a vehicle to the hospital. Then he learned he was in the right area to use the city’s transit, BG Go. That gave him some motivation.

FRANKFORT, Ky. – Kentucky’s business and transportation leaders today announced an effort to prevent the serious decline of Kentucky’s infrastructure.

The Kentucky Infrastructure Coalition (KIC) includes more than 30 organizations that represent manufacturers, farmers, economic development leaders, engineers, local leaders and more than 40,000 transportation workers who understand that safe, reliable, efficient transportation is essential to Kentucky’s economy.

KIC has been formed to advocate for, and provide solutions to, the Commonwealth’s transportation needs. Juva Barber, executive director of Kentuckians for Better Transportation, will serve as the coalition chairwoman.

“Kentucky must invest more in infrastructure to attract and expand a 21st century economy and jobs,” Barber said. “Funding solutions must be dynamic and meet the evolving needs of a changing economy. We support long-term, sustainable funding that provides adequate revenues for all modes of transportation so our state can maintain the infrastructure we have today and build what we need for our future.”

The Need

There are a few key factors contributing to the lack of sufficient investment in transportation:

A national decline in the average wholesale gas prices resulted in a $200 million recurring annual loss for Kentucky. The commonwealth also will soon lose $110 million in credits, a portion of which is used for transit for matching funds for federal dollars.

There are currently more than 1,100 significant transportation projects that need to be completed, according to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. These projects – both statewide and regional – exceed the $2.6 billion in current funds by several billion dollars.

More than $150 million is diverted from the road fund for other agencies each year.

The Importance

Effective, dependable infrastructure is essential to the foundation of Kentucky’s economy:

More than $500 billion in freight flows through Kentucky annually.

Transportation brings in tourists and visitors who contribute almost $14.5 billion to our economy each year.

Highway accessibility is the most important factor in site selection for an employer, according to Area Development Magazine’s 2016 survey of corporate executiveDrivers in Kentucky already are paying the price.

Driving on Kentucky’s diminishing transportation system costs motorists a total of $4 billion every year in additional vehicle operating costs, congestion-related delays and traffic crashes, according to transportation research organization TRIP. That total is 2.5 times greater than what Kentucky spends in the road fund each year.

For more information on KIC, including a list of partners and additional information on transportation needs and importance, visit http://www.kickstartky.com/.

About the Kentucky Infrastructure Coalition

The Kentucky Infrastructure Coalition is made up of manufacturers, farmers, engineers, local leaders and more than 40,000 transportation workers who understand that safe, reliable, efficient transportation is essential to Kentucky’s economy. The Coalition supports long-term, sustainable funding that provides adequate revenues for all modes of transportation so our state can maintain the infrastructure we have today and build what we need for our future.

TRUMP SIGNS ORDER TO SPEED INFRASTRUCTURE CONSTRUCTION

President Donald Trump says he has signed a new executive order intended to make more efficient the federal permitting process for construction of infrastructure projects without harming the environment.

Aug. 15, 2017, at 7:03 p.m.
By JOAN LOWY and MICHAEL BIESECKER, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday he has signed a new executive order intended to make more efficient the federal permitting process for cons